Disclaimer: If I owned Criminal Minds, I don't think I would drive a twenty-year-old car.

Flesh and Blood

Joy checked her vest and her gun. The vest was secure and her gun felt comfortable in her hands.

"Your earpiece?"

She tapped it and nodded.

Morgan glanced at her, then at the one-story ranch. "So, the Kelly Residence."

"Hopefully this goes somewhere." She straightened. "You think it's her?"

"The profile fits."

"We're ready." Hotch said.

Morgan, Rossi and Prentiss lead the maneuver. Joy fell behind with the SWAT team, hearing the agents shout "Clear!"

"Hotch! Kitchen!"

She made her way to the kitchen in the back of the house. Erin Kelly was sitting at the table, frantically writing on the legal pad.

Reid put away his gun. "Erin?"

She glanced up, strands of blonde hair falling around her face.

"What are you writing?"

"The stories. They keep talking to me." Her lower lip trembled. "I thought… I thought…"

"What?"

Joy held her breath as the young agent approached the woman. Glancing around the kitchen, she could see the bloody bat propped against the wall.

"I tried! I can't keep up! They keep talking!"

"Who?"

"Chloe! Christopher! Lucifer! I tried… I tried to find them bodies, so they could talk. Like they do. Flesh and blood."

Morgan and Rossi glanced at Joy.

Reid swallowed. "You need to come with us, Erin."

"Can you make them stop?"

"I can try."

She nodded and let herself be lead away in cuffs. They all tucked their guns back in their holsters.

Rossi went into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. "All prescription bottles. All full."

Joy pulled on latex gloves and checked the bag that lay near the bat. "I found the quills. And a pair of black gloves."

"She doesn't seem organized," Morgan crouched down next to her.

"It's in the flesh and blood. None of it could be hers."

Morgan raised a brow.

"I read a lot."

"Not as much as Reid."

"I doubt I read the same genres as Dr. Reid. I prefer fantasy and romance, the swords and sorcery, and avoid the science fiction part of it."

"I almost live in the sci-fi section," Reid admitted.

Rising to her feet, Joy looked around. The home was well-tended. "She must have stopped taking her meds when she got laid off."

"Why?"

"My aunt has manic-depressive disorder. If she doesn't have a routine, she forgets to take her meds. My guess is Erin lost her job and lost her routine. When she stopped taking the meds, the voices and Hypergraphia became too much. She tried to find ways to make the voices stop, to bring the characters to life so that they could tell their own stories."

"Why choose those people at the mall?"

"If I were a writer, I would draw inspiration from the people around me. She mentioned Chloe and Lucifer, so I'm guessing they are major characters in her story and the models were fellow employees at Borders'." She glanced around one more time. "The flesh and blood inspiration became the flesh and blood vessel."

Morgan shivered. "Do you think she'll confess?"

Joy shrugged. "I would think so. And once she goes back on her meds, she'll feel the remorse. She didn't want to hurt anyone; she just wanted the voices to stop." She rubbed the back of her neck.

"So simple a solution," Morgan murmured.

"Yes."